Featured USD Experts

Topher McDougal

Topher McDougal is Assistant Professor in Economic Development & Peacebuilding at the Kroc School of Peace Studies (KSPS) at the University of San Diego. He is also a Research Fellow at the Centre on Conflict, Development, & Peacebuilding (CCDP) at the Graduate Institute for International & Development Studies, Geneva, Switzerland. Topher teaches the Kroc School courses "Development & Conflict," "Sustainable Development," "Foundations of Peace & Justice Studies," "Sustainable Development," and "Research Methodology for Peace Studies & Practice." Topher also serves as KSPS representative at USD's Center for Peace & Commerce (CPC), a joint venture of KSPS and the School of Business Administration.

An economic geographer by training, Topher has consulted for various organizations including the World Bank, Humanitarian Policy & Conflict Research (HPCR) International, and the International Rescue Committee (IRC), on private sector development, urban economics, and public finance in postwar and developing countries. He has conducted field work in Liberia and Sierra Leone, and along India's Red Corridor, where the Maoist insurgency is based, which led to his doctoral dissertation, "The Political Economy of Rural-Urban Conflict: Lessons from West Africa and India," which he hopes to publish as a book.

Topher has a PhD in International Economic Development from MIT's International Development Group, where his dissertation committee included Balakrishnan Rajagopal, Diane Davis, and Roger Petersen. Topher also has a Master of International Development, also from MIT/IDG, an MS in Geography from the University of New Mexico, and a BA in Philosophy from Swarthmore College. He has a graduate certificate in Humanitarian Studies from the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative.

McDougal, Topher L., “Law of the Landless: The Dalit Bid for Land Redistribution in Gujarat, India.” Law & Development Review 4(1), Article 4, 2011. Available at: http://www.bepress.com/ldr/vol4/iss1/art4/

McDougal, Topher L., “How Production Firms Adapt to Civil War: The Case of Liberia,” WIDER Working Paper 2010/69, United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER), 2010.